Hepatitis C antibody prevalence in Saudi Arabian blood donor population

Based on the screening of 10,646 units of blood by a recombinant hepatitis C antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the prevalence of hepatitis C (HCV) antibody-reactive donors was established in a Saudi Arabian donor population. The overall prevalence of HCV antibody was found to be 1.01%. By nationality, the antibody frequency was 1.00% (Saudi males), 2.30% (other Middle Easterners), 0.71% (Far East nationals), and 0.39% (Europeans/North Americans). The ELISA HCV antibody reactive units were further tested by a recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) in which 47.2% of the initially reactive samples were found to contain specific antibodies to two recombinant antigens. HCV antibody seroprevalence defined by reactiveness in both tests was 0.48% for the entire population, 0.33% (Saudis), 1.42% (Middle Easterners), 0.27% (Far East nationals and Europeans/North Americans). The surrogate markers alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and hepatitis B core (HBc) antibody identified 7.7 to 40% and 20 to 56.4%, respectively, of donors of different nationalities testing repeatedly reactive in the HCV ELISA. Likewise, ALT and HBc antibody identified 20 to 57.1% and 0 to 66.75%, respectively, of HCV ELISA and RIBA reactive donor samples, depending on nationality. It was concluded that the present anti-HCV testing, althought useful in screening blood for HCV carriers, must be supplemented by surrogate tests until additional specific tests are available.